Where do you prefer to live?

It’s the age old question! There are several reasons why people choose to move into a house or an apartment. Some people prefer to live in a house, while others think that there are more advantages to living in an apartment. To find an answer to the question and see people’s points of view, we asked the question to a number of people. We asked them to compare and contrast living in a house with living in an apartment from an eco-environmental point of view thinking about; cost, comfort, energy efficiency, noise, security, etc.

Here are some of the answers.

Alp: Personally, I have lived in both, but I prefer living in a house. Of course, it costs more and you use more energy for heating but houses are more comfortable than apartments. Of course, if you live in a detached house especially if it is in the suburbs, you need to consider your security options because it may not be as safe as living in an apartment. I mean, that is if you don’t have private security.

Larissa: I think the answer differs depending on the way the building was built. For example; if you have an old fashioned apartment built with cheap materials, you’ll spend more money on energy. Or if you have a modern family house with thermal insulation, power solar cells and recycling of heat from used water, it will cost less.

Merve: I suppose the basic idea is something like large surface means large energy losses, and having many outside walls like in a house means more thermal loss in large areas, unless the walls are well insulated. I personally prefer an apartment to a house. The only disadvantage of an apartment for me is that it’s usually noisier than a house if you have a noisy neighbour.

Costas: In my experience, apartments constructed with advanced energy materials are more energy efficient and more eco-friendly than houses. However, we have a large family so it is more difficult to live in an apartment.

Naz: Living in a house is more luxurious than living in an apartment because the bills are higher but wherever you live, you cause more pollution when you live in a place that doesn’t have ecological solutions for heating.

Jacob: I’ve been looking for a new place to live and when we searched on the internet we learnt that self-heating eco houses save up to 85 percent on heating, 100 percent on cooling, 30 percent on lighting and about 20 to 40 percent on building materials. Therefore, we prefer to live in such a house.

Stephen: A few days ago, I read an article about a very different energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable house. According to the article, the house reacts to the weather. It turns dark in the bright sun to insulate the house from heat and it turns clear on dark days to absorb light and heat. The façade also captures rain to fill the household’s water needs. It sounds weird to me. I prefer a traditional house.